Due to the government's interest in protecting and cleaning up the environment, Congress has enacted several laws and regulations relating to environmental remediation. These laws and regulations are due, for the most part, to increased manufacturing waste, service industry waste and even waste from governmental projects which ultimately contaminate the soil. Contaminants such as hydrocarbons and metals, including lead, can be found in contaminated soil. If these contaminants are not removed from the soil, they will likely proliferate through the soil to reach groundwater and create other environmental problems which are difficult to cure.
Typically, soil known to be contaminated is excavated and transported to a landfill or a soil remediation site for cleansing. The cleansed soil is then returned to its original location. This process can become time consuming and extremely expensive depending upon the type of apparatus used to cleanse the soil and the techniques involved. Despite the logistical problems, this process is a necessary step in cleaning contaminated soil.
Numerous patents relating to soil remediation exist. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,637,154 to Shorthouse, 5,588,947 to Studer et al., 5,340,406 to Fearon and 5,288,330 to Ballard et al. are all recent examples of various devices and techniques employed to remediate contaminated soil.
In contrast to the prior art teachings, the present invention is a safe, effective means for treating hydrocarbon contaminated soil by providing a system which agitates a soil/water/biodegradeable soap mixture and subsequently heats the soil to result in an environmentally safe solution to effectively remove crude or refined oil from the soil, as well as the toxins associated with this type of contamination.
The novel features of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following detailed description of the invention or can be learned by practice of the present invention. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description of the invention and the specific examples presented, while indicating certain embodiments of the present invention, are provided for illustration purposes only because various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the detailed description of the invention and claims that follow.